After President Lee Jae-myung raised concerns about lenders extending loans for multiple-home owners, the financial authorities urgently summoned all financial sectors to assess the situation. The financial authorities formed a joint task force (TF) with the financial sector and decided to review loans to multiple-home owners.
The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service held an emergency review meeting on the afternoon of the 13th at Government Complex Seoul regarding extensions of loan maturities for multiple-home owners across all financial sectors. The meeting was attended by the Korea Federation of Banks, associations from the secondary financial sector, and the five major commercial banks.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and related agencies will form a joint TF as soon as possible, conduct an intensive review of the relevant matters, and devise reasonable improvement measures. They agreed to examine the status of past lending to multiple-home owners and procedures for maturity extensions, and to promptly address items requiring improvement.
Shin Jin-chang, Secretary-General of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), said, "Mortgage loans to multiple-home owners in the capital area and regulated area (the June 27 measures) and loans to purchase-and-lease operators unrelated to new dwelling construction (the Sept. 7 measures) are fully prohibited at present, but in the past such loans were allowed to a considerable extent," and emphasized, "We must thoroughly check whether financial companies have been routinely extending loan maturities without careful review of the appropriateness of the related loans, and prepare improvement measures."
Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung said on X (formerly Twitter) the previous day, "Even to tackle the national task of stabilizing housing prices, it is a problem to offer financial benefits for acquiring multiple homes for investment or speculation, not for owner-occupied use." He added, "We even cut capital gains taxes and gave years of opportunities, yet multiple-home owners held out without reducing their holdings—when their loans reach maturity, is it fair to give only them additional benefits of loan extensions?"